When I approached my Husband just a few weeks ago regarding what he would like for me to make for his birthday dinner I wasn't expecting to hear the words pulled pork come out of his mouth, after all he is the smoker in this house not me so that would mean he would be in charge of his own meal. He was just fine with that, if and when he does leave for Afghanistan, he wants me to ship his smoker over to him, the boy loves to smoke him some meat. He also decided he wanted baked beans and wouldn't you believe he took making those on as well and guess what...he smoked those to. Needless to say tonight's meal was full of smokey goodness and even though it was my wonderful husbands birthday he did all of the work and deserves all of the credit. I did make him a cake so I guess I should get a pat on the back as well!

We have already shared with you how he does his pulled pork so I won't bore you with the details, but tonight's baked beans were a new recipe with a very surprising ingredient and they were pretty yummy.

We did ours on the smoker for about two hours or so and they were really good. You can also do them on the stove and simmer for about 30 minutes but I think the depth of flavor is better when you do them in the oven or on the smoker as we did. You might have also noticed that Daniel took a few more slices of bacon and laid them on top of the beans.

Now for the cake. This is another recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I made it several months ago for Daniel and myself and he loved it. I originally was going to make him a Carrot cake but when I mentioned making this cake again he was all for it.

Million Dollar Cake~

Ingredients:

1-18.25 ox. yellow cake mix

8 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar

1-20 oz. crushed pineapple with juice

2-8oz. mandarin oranges, drained

1-3.4 oz instant vanilla pudding

1-8 oz. frozen whipped cream, thawed

Directions:

1.) Mix and bake cake mix as instructed per package for two 8 or 9 in. round layers. Let layers cool and then split each layer in half so that you have 4 layers.

2.) In a large bowl, whip cream cheese until soft and then gradually mix in confectioners sugar. Stir in the pineapple with juice and the drained mandarin oranges, reserving 5 slices to decorate the top. Mix in the dry pudding mix. Fold in the whipped topping.

3.) Place one cake layer on a cake plate cut side up; spread with frosting. Place another layer cut side down on the first one, and top with more frosting. Repeat until layers are used, spreading last bit of frosting on the top and sides of cake. Decorate with reserved oranges.

4.) Refrigerate overnight.

Now if you are like me and have a hard time following directions this is how I did it. Instead of layering the cake since my cake didn't rise the way I would have liked, we just sliced it up and then topped it with the frosting. Also, I made the frosting and just a few hours later we were digging in. No overnight marination for us. It went over really well and honestly, you could eat the frosting just by itself.

On a side note, Uncle Dan got released from the hospital and he is doing really really well. It was like a different person tonight from just a week ago. Lennon is slowing but surely doing better, still going to have his amputation done on Tuesday, but is tail is looking a little better. Tonight was the first night he and Uncle Dan had met and like I expected, they became the best of buddies.

I promised my Husband that if today's trip to the grocery was under $100 that we could get some Chipotle's for lunch since he had a craving. It was under a $100 so the quesadillas were put on hold. I am making some tonight for a snack so I will post them in the morning along with the biscuits and gravy. Just wanted to let everyone know...I didn't forget.

Me and Daniel

My little miracle baby, Addison!

Cadence Leah

About Me

I am a 31 year old wife, and mother of two battling Crohns disease. I was diagnosed with Crohns in 2005 and it's been a downhill battle since then. During my battle with this horrid disease I married Daniel(2007) gave birth to Addison Grace(2010), and also gave birth to Cadence Leah(2011). All three are the greatest things ever to happen to me. Join me on my journey as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and wanna be self taught chef.